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Battle of the Atlantic: CLG vs G2

Of all the story lines going in to the Mid-Season Invitational, few are as prolific and fanatic as that of North America versus Europe, with this iteration of the rivalry being old dogs Counter Logic Gaming up against the young upstarts of G2 Esports.

Far from the glittering novelty of
Las Vegas and the proud city of Rotterdam, the Mid-Season
Invitational awaits in Shanghai. The six strongest teams from their
respective regions around the world get ready for their chance to
demonstrate their strength on the world stage in a battle for glory
and fame. Of all the story lines going in to the Mid-Season
Invitational, few are as prolific and fanatic as that of North
America versus Europe, with this iteration of the rivalry being old
dogs Counter Logic Gaming up against the young upstarts of G2
Esports.

For G2 Esports this matchup - and
tournament as a whole - is about justification; justifying that
they are, undoubtedly, EU's strongest representative, justifying
the notion that EU is the strongest non-Korean region, and
justifying, for another season, that EU is better than NA. For CLG
this tournament is all about redemption; redeeming NA from Season 5
Worlds, redeeming CLG from IEM Katowice and redeeming the entirety
of NA as an apparent 'joke' region.

Despite CLG being one of North
America's most established organisations and being backed by the
veteran talent and experience of Darshan "Darshan"
Upadhyaha, Jake "Xmithie" Puchero and Zaqueri "aphromoo"
Black, it would be untrue to say that G2 are not the favourites in
this matchup. Whether that is due to G2's inarguable crushing of
the European LCS or simply because of EU's historical dominance
over NA, it is hard to say. But the question remains, can CLG
overcome their international disappointment or do fans of North
America only have more disappointment in store for them?

To take a glance at this pairing,
the immediate assumption would be to say that Darshan has it won,
rather handedly, and it's probably not incorrect to make that
assumption. Historically one of NA's strongest carry top laners
against Kikis, a previous Jungle main only recently transferring to
the top lane, who plays tanks and carries to a fairly average
level. Not only is this a mismatch in experience and skill,
however, it is also a complete mismatch in styles. Darshan receives
21.8% of his team's gold, putting him second place in the NA LCS
for top laner's gold share as opposed to Kikis' meagre 19.6% gold
share, putting him dead last in the EU LCS.

In the regular season and the
playoffs, Darshan played twelve champions, eight of which would be
considered 'carries' (Ekko, Fiora, Gangplank, Graves, Jax,
Pantheon, Ryze and Yasuo) and four of which would be considered
'tanks' (Gnar, Maokai, Poppy and Trundle). Even the tanks played by
Darshan are the more carry-oriented champions with Gnar being more
of a bruiser, Trundle more of a splitpusher and Poppy a definite
backline threat - essentially Darshan played one pure tank game the
entire split, a game which he lost. Indeed, Darshan's focus - and
by proxy CLG's - for the vast majority of the split has been to get
a lead over his opposing laner and then bully them and put pressure
on the map by split-pushing - not a role most suited to that of a
tank. To get this lead, Darshan is generally the focus of Xmithie
and is often further aided through CLG's use of globals in double
teleport amongst other strategies.

On the other hand, Kikis is
generally not the focus of his team, or even a main carry. Trick
rarely paths for top lane and top lane is almost never a priority
for G2. In the regular season and playoffs, Kikis played eleven
champions, eight tanks (Malphite, Maokai, Nautilus, Poppy, Rammus,
Shen, Tahm Kench and Trundle), two carries (Ekko and Fiora) and one
supportive mage (Lulu). It is clear to see that Kikis is a
supportive top laner whose main aim is to provide a frontline for
his solid three carries and to engage when he sees fit as
shotcaller.

Despite all evidence seemingly
pointing towards Darshan taking this matchup with ease, it cannot
be denied that Kikis had an excellent playoffs series, solokilling
his lane opponent on one occasion and generally providing a very
strong performance, showing a large preference for Trundle. He even
upped his damage share from 19.1% in the regular season to a
respectable 22.3% in the playoffs. The meta of tank top laners
certainly does seem to favour Kikis even though Darshan has shown a
proficiency for some of them but overall, the upper-hand has to go
to Darshan.

Edge: Darshan

Jungle: Jake "Xmithie"
Puchero versus Kim "Trick" Kang Yoon

Trick, along with Perkz, has been a
shining star for G2 and the European LCS, showcasing his incredible
proficiency with carry junglers and being the main carry of his
team on more than one occasion, all of which led to him receiving,
most deservedly, the EU LCS MVP award. His synergy with Perkz is
the best example of mid/jungle synergy in the West and he uses
Perkz' lane dominance to ensure his own safety in invading and
taking control of the enemy jungle. This is a strategy employed by
G2 almost every game and they are near flawless in its execution.
He places a huge priority in the duelling jungler trio of Nidalee,
Graves and Kindred but is by no means limited to these three picks.
His general priority is mid lane but oftentimes his main focus is
securing his own lead, an extremely viable strategy when you
consider how he can carry G2.

Xmithie, on the contrary, has been
CLG's hidden gem for the entirety of the Spring Split and while he
has not received much praise from the community and critics alike,
he has easily been the best performing member of CLG behind
aphromoo. It is hard to think of a 'bad' game Xmithie has had all
split and to put him at number two behind Kim "Reignover" Ui-jin
would not be unrealistic. Xmithie has played a huge variety of
styles for CLG this split, games where he has taken minimal
resources and focused on his laners, games where he has picked
Nidalee and 'gone off', taking a huge gold share and becoming a
main carry for his team. As previously said Xmithie's main priority
is getting Darshan a lead but he showed in the Finals versus TSM
that he can put a large amount of pressure on bot lane as well.
Xmithie is also not afraid to sacrifice his own farm to get his
team ahead (see game 5 of TSM vs CLG) spending huge amounts of time
warding (one of the few junglers to still get sightstone before
jungle item) and securing as opposed to the common farm heavy style
that is common in Season 6.

This is going to one of the closer
matchups in G2 vs CLG even though Trick's credentials seem to far
outweight Xmithie's. A theory posed by scarra was
that "Xmithie plays to level of the enemy
jungler", a theory which actually makes sense all things
considered. Xmithie has not been completely outmatched essentially
all season against some extremely strong junglers (Reignover,
Dardoch, Svenskeren). However, Xmithie has yet to play against
someone as aggressive and bold as Trick and while he may not lose
per se, he may struggle to pressure his lanes as he is accustomed
to. And it is undeniable that Trick is on fire right now and will
be ready to steamroll his way through another enemy jungle.

Edge: Trick

Mid Lane: Choi "Huhi"
Jae-hyun versus Luka "Perkz" Perkovic

If there was one area for CLG to be
concerned about this is it. The young Croatian mid laner, Perkz,
exploded onto the scene this split after being second best behind
Sencux all last year in the Challenger Series and has not given
anyone any reason to doubt his Rookie of the Split award and has
even made some doubt Trick's MVP award. In the conservative meta of
Season 6, Perkz has been one of the few mid laners to still produce
highlight clips on assassins like Leblanc, Zed and Ahri showing his
prowess and dominance in the 1v1 and laning phase. His dominance
extends to control mages as well as he has shown extremely strong
control mage play in the likes of Azir, Gangplank and Viktor and
has even proven he can play to enable other carries on Lulu. His
CSD@10 is 6, second only to Felix "Betsy" Edling, only
further highlighting the authority he has continued to show in the
EU LCS this split and showing why many are now recognising him as
the next EU mid lane talent, up there with Febiven, Froggen,
Bjergsen etc.

To describe Huhi's split, one word
suffices: mediocre. Almost every statistic of his is middling to
bottom (except from Wards per minute which he tops) and his style
is neither high lane pressure or conservative lane control. He
occupies a middle ground where he will not lose the game but
neither will he solo win it. He has played a variety of styles
throughout the split to varying degrees of success. Huhi seems a
jack of all trades style of mid laner where one area of expertise
cannot be pinned on him but he can play control mages, assassins
and supportive mages, all within one series. And while his Spring
Split left a lot to be desired, his playoffs were actually a
pleasant surprise where he seemed to find his stride on Ryze and
Ekko, even putting in decent lane performances against Bjergsen,
who is famed for his 1v1.

While Huhi may have played a good
playoff series against two good mid laners, he has yet to play
against Perkz. Perkz should dominate this matchup no matter the
picks and if Huhi simply survives lane against him he will have
done an admirable job.

Neither of these lanes have been
dominant, and neither do they play to be dominant. Despite
aphromoo's previous lane dominance, this split he has focused less
on lane and more on roaming as has Hybrid and both ADCs are content
to farm relatively passively to their powerspikes. Between the ADCs
themselves, the difference in skill and ability is negligible
(experience advantage to Emperor) and is unlikely to be the main
factor in the outcome of their matches. They are similar in that
they are rarely the focus of their team but when they are, they
have proven themselves capable of stepping up.

The supports, however, are a far
more interesting pairing. Both are virtually identical in Kill
Participation (71.8% to 71.2%) again demonstrating their clear
tendency to stray from lane and affect the map. aphromoo has had a
combination of the NA support pool of ranged supports and the meta
pool of tank initiators but has placed his priority on Bard,
Morgana and Braum for the majority of the split. Hybrid, on the
other hand, has stuck almost solely by his Braum and Thresh picks,
both of which he proven time and time again he has mastered. A
further interesting area to be examined is Wards Per Minute and
Wards Cleared Per Minute. Hybrid has 1.23 WPM and 0.44 WCPM
(highest WCPM in the EU LCS) where as aphromoo has 0.99 WPM and
0.32 WCPM. These statistics are skewed, however, as Trick and
Xmithie play extremely different styles meaning that Hybrid often
does almost all the warding for his team, but aphromoo shares that
burden in great part with Xmithie. aphromoo definitely has an
advantage over Hybrid in all areas and his shotcalling will be key
in CLG's games therefore the support matchup goes in favour of
CLG

Edge: aphromoo over Hybrid.
However, the botlanes as a whole are quite even and are likely to
only be swung out of balance by jungle pressure.

Conclusions

If you have heard that this matchup
is heavily weighted in either direction then you've been told
wrong. Most matchups are surprisingly close (aside from mid lane)
and these matches should be extremely interesting to watch,
particularly to see how NA's ranged mage support meta will fair
outside of NA and how Xmithie will fair against Trick.

Both teams have shown proficiency
in the lane-swap so there should not be any sizable advantages
there. Overall, this G2 vs CLG should be focused around two key
players, Perkz and Darshan. Both have shown time and time again
what they can do with a sizeable lead and expect them to take over
if given the opportunity.